Steve Carpenter
Portfolio People Director @People Puzzles
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WORK HISTORY
Portfolio People Director @People Puzzles
GB
I am a People Director working with People Puzzles, a portfolio HR Director business. Our purpose is to help business owners achieve their goals by developing people strategies to help them transform and grow. Underpinning my approach is a firm belief that if you can get the best from your team, your business will be more successful and profitable as a result.As a Portfolio People Director, I oversee all people-based activities within your organisation, both strategic and tactical, to help enable your business to deliver its vision and business goals. Most mid-tier businesses don\'t want, don\'t need or can\'t afford a full-time People Director. Yet all businesses need the expertise to ensure they have capable, motivated and well-trained people. We work flexibly as part of your top team to find straightforward solutions to your people puzzles, for a fraction of the cost of a full-timer. People Puzzles People Directors work with over 200 SMEs on a recurring basis, usually weekly, providing them with strategic and operational advice and support. Regions: Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex & London
EDUCATION
Esher Sixth Form College
A Level, Government & Political Studies, Economics, Sociology
ABOUT STEVE CARPENTER
What do I do?I provide strategic people leadership on a part-time basis for ambitious mid-tier businesses.What gives me the right to be an expert in this area? I have held HR leadership roles for some entrepreneurial, exciting, fast-growth businesses.These organisations are well-known high street brands in the UK, but most of them were pretty small when I joined them, and they grew quite quickly.For example, I led the people agendas as- Caffe Nero grew 10x (yes, 10x!)- Krispy Kreme doubled in size and changed ownership- Hotel Chocolat had a successful IPOAnd I’ve had to make some pretty big changes in how I went about my work.I’ve helped these businesses move through the 4 stages of HR from ‘reactive’ to ‘strategic’. I’ve also learned that HR strategy is a much more definable thing than I thought it was early in my career.But it has been a roller-coaster journey for me. Trying to find the sweet spot between delivering what the organisation needs now AND preparing it for its next phase.In smaller, fast-growing businesses this is especially tough- The HR teams are usually small or even non-existent- The budgets are usually limited- Operational workload can easily takeover.And other leadership can struggle to see the benefit of strategic HR.But over this time, I’ve tested lots of things and I’ve learned from plenty of mistakes.And I’ve worked out what the core and pragmatic focuses need to be to find this elusive balance between operational and strategic HR.
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